We now understood the reason of a fact which had appeared a little remarkable; namely, that we should have traversed so great an extent of Indian country as we had done since leaving the Pawnees, without meeting a single savage. The bands above enumerated are supposed to comprise nearly the whole erratic population of the country about the sources of the Platte and Arkansa; and they had all been absent from their usual haunts on a predatory excursion against the Indians of New Mexico.
At our request, the Kaskaia and his squaw returned with us several miles, to point out a place suitable for fording the Arkansa, and to give us any other information or assistance in their power to communicate. Being made to understand that it was the design of some of the party to visit the sources of Red river, he pretended to give us information and advice upon that subject; also to direct us to a place where we might find a mass of rock salt, which he described as existing on one of the upper branches of Red river.
At ten o'clock we arrived at the ford, where we halted to make a distribution of the baggage and other preparations requisite to the proposed division of the party. Our Kaskaia visitor, with his handsome and highly ornamented wife, encamped near us, erecting a little tent covered with skins. They presented us some jerked bison meat, and received in return some tobacco and other inconsiderable articles. A small looking-glass, which was among the presents given him, he immediately stripped of the frame and covering, and inserted it with some ingenuity into a large billet of wood, on which he [249] began to carve the figure of an alligator. Captain Bell bought of him the horse they had led with them; and which, according to their account, had recently been caught from among the wild horses of the prairie. This made some new arrangement of their baggage necessary; and we were surprised to witness the facility and despatch with which the squaw constructed a new pack-saddle. She felled a small cotton-wood tree, from which she cut two large forked sticks. These were soon reduced to the proper dimensions, and adapted to the ends of two flat pieces of wood about two feet in length, and designed to fit accurately to the back of the horse, a longitudinal space of a few inches in width being left between them to receive the ridge of the back. The whole was fastened together without nails, pins, or mortices, by a strong covering of dressed horse hide sewed on wet with fibres of deer's sinew.
The Indian informed us he was called "The Calf." He appeared excessively fond of his squaw; and their caresses and endearments they were at no pains to conceal. It was conjectured by our guide, and afterwards ascertained by those who descended the Arkansa, that they had married contrary to the laws and usages of their tribe, the woman being already the wife of another man, and run away for concealment.
The small point of land on which we encamped has a sandy soil, and is thinly covered with cotton-wood, intermixed with the aspen poplar (P. tremula, Mx.) and a few willows. The undergrowth is scattered and small, consisting principally of the amorpha fruticosa and a syngenecious shrub, probably a vernonia. Along the base of the mountains, and about this encampment, we had observed a small asclepias not easily distinguished from a verticillata, but rarely rising more than two or three inches from the ground. Here, we saw also the A. longifolia and A. viridifolia of Punsh. The scanty [250] catalogue of grassy and herbaceous plants found here comprises two sunflowers, (H. giganteus, N. and an undescribed species,) the great bartonica, the Mexican argemone, the cactus ferox, the andropogon furcatum, and A. ciliatum, cyperus uncinatus, elymus striatus, and a few others. Soon after arriving at this encampment, we commenced the separation of our baggage, horses, &c. preparatory to the division of the party. It was now proposed, pursuant to the plan already detailed, that one division of the party, consisting of Mr. Say, Mr. Seymour, Lieut. Swift, the three Frenchmen, Bijeau, Le Doux, and Julian, with five riflemen, the greater part of the pack-horses, the heavy baggage, and the two dogs, all under the direction of Captain Bell, should proceed directly down the Arkansa by the most direct route to Fort Smith, there to await the arrival of the other division; while Major Long, accompanied by Dr. James, Mr. Peale, and seven men, should cross the Arkansa, and travel southward in search of the sources of Red river.
While several of the party were engaged in making these preparations, hunters were sent out; who were so far successful, that they soon returned, bringing two deer, one antelope, and seven turkeys. The opportunity of an unoccupied moment was taken to collect from Bijeau an account of some part of the Rocky Mountains which we had not seen.
Joseph Bijeau, (or Bessonet, which is his hereditary name, the former having been derived from a second marriage of his mother,) had performed, in a very adequate and faithful manner, the services of guide and interpreter from the Pawnee villages to this place. He had formerly been resident in these western wilds, in the capacity of hunter and trapper, during the greater part of six years.
He had traversed the country lying between the north fork of the Platte and the Arkansa in almost every direction. His pursuits often led him within the [251] Rocky Mountains, where the beaver are particularly abundant. He appears possessed not only of considerable acuteness of observation, but of a degree of candour and veracity which gives credibility to his accounts and descriptions. To him we are indebted for the following account of the country situated within the mountains.
The region lying west of the first range of the Rocky Mountains, and between the sources of the Yellow Stone on the north, and Santa Fé on the south, is made up of ridges of mountains, spurs and valleys. The mountains are usually abrupt, often towering into inaccessible peaks covered with perpetual snows. The interior ranges and spurs are generally more elevated than the exterior; this conclusion is at least naturally drawn from the fact, that they are covered with snow to a greater extent below their summits. Although that point which we have denominated James's Peak has been represented as higher than any other part of the mountains within one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles, we are inclined to believe it falls much below several other peaks, and particularly that which was for many days observed by the party when ascending the Platte.[37]
The valleys within the Rocky Mountains are, many of them, extensive, being from ten to twenty or thirty miles in width, and are traversed by many large and beautiful streams. In these valleys, which are destitute of timber, the soil is frequently fertile and covered with a rich growth of a white-flowered clover, upon which horses and other animals feed with avidity. They have an undulating surface, and are terminated on all sides by gentle slopes leading up to the base of the circumjacent mountains. Timber may be had on the declivities of the hills in sufficient quantity to subserve the purposes of settlement. The soil is deep, well watered, and adapted to cultivation.